A pioneering businessman who built a Geordie empire out of the stottie cake and cheese pastie has earned a top industry award.

A pioneering businessman who built a Geordie empire out of the stottie cake and cheese pastie has earned a top industry award.

Ian Gregg OBE, 64, has been presented with a British baker special award in the 2003 Baking Industry Awards.

The honour was given in recognition of the way he has steered Greggs from its humble origins to its place as the biggest baker in the land.

But the award is also meant to reflect the tremendous contribution to good causes he has used his position to achieve.

Central to this is his creation of the Greggs Charitable Trust which donates around &#xA3;500,000 a year to disadvantaged people.

For two decades he was managing director of the successful company and finally stepped down from the chairman post in August 2002. He is now enjoying a well-earned retirement.

Graham Randell, regional managing director of both Greggs North East and Greggs Cumbria, paid tribute today to Ian the businessman and person.

"I have known Ian for many years and found him to be a complete inspiration to work with.

"Greggs may have come a long way since he took over the reins but the values of the company have remained the same.

"Ian has always stressed the need to look after his staff and this is something which has filtered right through the whole firm."

Greggs was founded as a tiny family bakery business on Tyneside in the 1930s by Ian's father John Gregg.

When his father died suddenly in 1964, Ian gave up his plans for a legal career to take over the business, which at that stage consisted of a single shop with a small bakery at the rear.

Under his leadership, the retail chain expanded in the North East and established the principle of serving a cluster of stores from a single central bakery.

The business expanded out of its North East heartland by acquiring and developing established regional bakery chains based in Glasgow in 1972, Leeds in 1974 and then two years later added a Manchester chain to its empire.

In the past 12 months the company opened another 33 shops taking its total to 1,211 employing more than 17,600.

Sylvia MacDonald, the editor of British Baker magazine, which organised the event said: "This is a tremendous honour for Ian. This achievement reflects many years of hard work and the worthwhile contribution that he has made to the baking industry."